Paul,
The EPA maximum level of cyanide in drinking water is 0.2 mg/l or 0.2 ppm.
Fish may die at 0.1 mg/l in water and 1.0 mg/L of cyanide in blood marks a
significant cyanide poisoning for humans. In your case the concentration of
YPS in the product is 0.4446 mg/kg or 0.4446 ppm, if I am correct. The issue
is how much of that may be converted into cyanide during processing and
storage of smoked fish. It appears that it would require appro. 50.0 % of
all YPS being converted to cyanide to reach the maximum level allowed in
potable water. Therefore it looks indeed that there is no impeding hazard
here in a sense that even under the worst case scenario we still would not
eat as much smoked fish as we drink water.
Best regards,
Andrew Strak
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul G. Taylor" <pault@everfoodingr.com>
> To: "Seafood Group" <seafood@ucdavis.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 3:14 PM
> Subject: YPS saga
>
>
> > OK, folks let's do a bit of reasoning here regarding the "deadly" YPS!
> >
> > Let's say that a reasonable portion of smoked fish is 4 ounces or 114
> grams.
> > Let's also say that the salt content of this fish is 3%--probably a bit
> > high, but let's use that figure. Therefore, in that portion, there will
> be
> > 3.42 grams of salt.
> > If 13 ppm of that salt is YPS, then the YPS consumed will be 0.00004446
> > grams.
> >
> > Recently Dr. LaBudde stated that the LD50 for Sodium Cyanide (which has
a
> > higher level of CN!) was 15 mg. per kg!
> >
> > If this concern for the use of YPS bothers you, then don't drive a car,
> fly
> > in an airplane, and especially don't smoke a cigarette--you will die
> sooner
> > from those than from eating that portion of smoked fish, UV light or
not.
> > (And remember that the UV only affects the surface YPS--a much lower
> amount
> > than what is in the entire portion!)
> >
> > I think that I will go sit in the sun and eat a couple of pounds of
smoked
> > salmon!
> >
> > Paul G. Taylor
> > Evergreen Food Ingredients
> > 2210 Black Lake Blvd. S.W.
> > Olympia, WA 98512-5604
> > Phone: (360)754-1718; Fax: (360)754-1704
> > E-mail: pault@everfoodingr.com
> >
> >
>
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